Two first-half tries from James Wilson set the league leaders Northampton on the road to victory in their match at struggling Newcastle.

Despite being shorn of their international stars, Saints still looked in a different class as they dealt with the blustery wind and heavy Kingston Park pitch to run out 22-16 winners.

Newcastle snatched a losing bonus point with a Noah Cato try two minutes from time. Full-back Wilson's double strike gave the Saints a 19-6 lead at half-time, at which point Newcastle had hardly threatened. The home side rarely had the ball and it came as a surprise that Northampton could only add a Stephen Myler penalty after the break, while conceding Cato's late score.

Two powerfully driven tries from the front-row forwards James Johnston and Schalk Brits enabled second-placed Saracens to overcome a stiff challenge from Exeter Chiefs. Both were converted by the former England fly-half Charlie Hodgson, who also kicked three second-half penalties in his side's 23-10 home win.

Exeter, who had taken the lead with a try by the centre Ian Whitten, suffered their fifth successive Premiership defeat. Their other five points came from the boot of their own fly-half, Gareth Steenson.

Leicester moved into the play-off places by ending London Irish's winning run. The Tigers had to withstand some huge pressure from their in-form opponents in the dying minutes but just held on to record a deserved 15-20 victory by scoring three tries to none.

The win raised the Tigers into fourth position in the league, moving them above Harlequins as it becomes increasingly likely that those two sides will contest the final play-off place.

Irish were aiming to record their fourth consecutive win in the Premiership but after an even first half, they fell away as Leicester became more dominant.

Irish had to rely on four penalties from James O'Connor and one from Ian Humphreys for their points. Australia international O'Connor, however, missed three kicks at vital times, which would have made the game a whole lot tighter.

The visitors were always the more threatening in attack and scored tries through Ben Youngs and the impressive Vereniki Goneva, as well as a controversial one for Logovi'i Mulipola with replays seeming to indicate that the Irish captain, George Skivington, had managed to prevent the score by getting a hand in under the ball. Owen Williams added a penalty and conversion.